WHAT IS A BLOG

The term BLOG originated as a short form of “Web Log” and its been more than a decade that blogs are online. But still now there is a confusion in the minds of specially new-comers about – What actually is a Blog? Mostly they seem to get confused between a Blog, a Static Website and a Forum. According to Google AdWords Keywords Tool the search volume for the phrase – “What is a Blog?” on Google is approx. 22,000 per month- so you see the number speaks for itself. In this post I will try to help those people in getting rid of this confusion and thus bring out – What a blog is?
What is a BLOG? – A Simple Definition:-
A BLOG is a simple online publishing tool (a frequently updated site) where a person, a company or a group or whoever it may be can publish his, her or their thoughts, works, audios, videos, photos etc for the world to see where each item that you publish is called a ‘Post’ or a ‘Entry’ and the posts are placed in a chronological order with the most recent post appearing at the top of the main page and oldest at last. (As time goes on and the online world evolves blogs are being used and presented in more diverse ways.)
The term “Blog” (as also “Blogging”) can also be used as a verb which means to write posts for a blog or to maintain a blog. “Blogger” – A person who “Blogs” or write contents for a blog or maintains a blog.
Blog/Static Website/Forum – A simple comparison:-
Basically speaking a Blog, a Static Website or a Forum are all Websites but each for a different purpose. Normally a Blog is frequently updated with posts by its author or authors and a Forum is updated by answers or suggestions to a particular question called a ‘Thread’ by normally anyone who registers with the forum but Static Websites in comparison are seldom updated. You can also find a Website which has some Static Pages, a Blog and also a Forum each serving its own purpose thus giving a much richer user experience.
BLOG – some common features :-
1.    Content is frequently updated (though it depends upon the author) giving some new matter to persons each time they return to the blog thus keeping the interest high.
2.    The posts / articles are arranged in a chronological fashion with the most recent article appearing at the top and gradually the oldest one at last (but the number of articles shown on the home page can also be controlled).
3.    There is also an “Archives” page which has all the posts listed according to the date of posting.
4.    ‘Categories’ section (in some Blog this section is also called ‘Topics’ / ‘Labels’ etc according to the taste of the author) – This section shows all the categories in which the postings are made and a click on any of the categories takes us to a page where all the postings in that category are listed by there title and sometimes also with a short description. We can choose a particular post and read it.
5.    “About Me” page (sometime this page is also called ‘Know Me’ / ‘Who Am I?’ etc) – Here the ‘Author’ of the blog introduces himself to his readers telling them about his hobbies, favourite pastimes, interests, favourite movies etc). This is what gives an unique experience to the readers as he comes to know the ‘Author’ as a person and creates a bond with the reader. (NOTE – But if it is a Company blog then this page is used to introduce the Company – so matter in this page depends on the type of blog it is.)
6.    “Comments” section (also called ‘Responses’ / ‘Feedbacks‘ / ‘Suggestions’) – Through which anybody reading a post can interact with the author by leaving a comment (which can be positive or sometimes even negative).
7.    Advertising space – which the author uses to monetize his blog.
8.    Syndicating option – this is used by the author to syndicate his posts via RSS.
There are many other sections that can be there in a blog based upon the author’s likes and dislikes but I have discussed the most common ones because my aim is to give you an idea of – “What a Blog is?”.
SOME TYPES OF BLOGS :-
1.    PERSONAL BLOGS – These blogs are written by an individual expressing his views on a certain field / fields or something general or personal that he wants others to read ( if too personal – then viewers can be restricted to those who the author wants only). This is the most common type of blogs found online. My blog is an example of this type.
2.    GROUP BLOGS – These are almost same as Personal Blogs except here there are multiple authors.
3.    CORPORATE BLOGS – These are typical business blogs owned by a company to write about their company, its products, policies or upcoming products solely written with the business point of view.
4.    POLITICAL BLOGS – These are blogs which contains posts on political issues of a region, country etc. These are owned mostly by political parties or leaders who use it to spread their ideology.
5.    TECHNOLOGY BLOGS – These are blogs containing posts related to technological  products, advancements, inventions etc. These can have single or multiple authors.
There are many other type of blogs based on the way they are written, their purpose or the way they are presented. I hope you have got an idea of  – What a blog is? .
BEST WAY TO LEARN – WHAT IS A BLOG? :-
As in the case of most (in fact all) of the Bloggers when I first heard about the term “Blog” or “Blogging” I was confused what it actually meant so I did a search on Google (as we all generally do when we want to know about something) with the phrase “What is a blog” and went through some of the result pages, then some more and continued doing it for the next two days until I got a fair bit of idea about a “BLOG” but then too there were some gaps left in my understanding which were not answered, so I made up my mind to start one myself. So
I started to search for ways to start a blog for free (I hope we all do it this way when we want to learn – of course if we do not have enough money to spend at our will – at least that was my case) and to my luck I got a few offering free Blogging platforms – after going through the sites of a few of them I made up my mind to go with “Blogger“- the blogging platform that Google (my favourite search engine) provides for free – and I started blogging and gradually all my unanswered queries were answered. By telling you my story – How I started blogging? – I just wanted to point to you that the best way to learn is to – Do It Yourself – Know The Theory And Then Put It To Practice (The old way of learning things). So – Get Started Buddy!
Thus to round off things it can be said that “Blog” is a great “social phenomenon” going on which has given the common man a tool to express himself to the world.
(And for the persons who have come to my site looking for money making opportunities – let me say that “Blogs” can make you a real lot of money. How? That will be explained in the posts to come because that is the purpose of my Blog – To Help You Make Money Online. So do come back again and again and again to get the latest of all money making opportunities available online.)
Does your understanding of a Blog match with mine? – if not then please suggest ways in which I can improve my post. Any suggestion or comment will be highly appreciated (ultimately we all learn from each other).